This invention relates to the representation of designs, and, more particularly, to the representation of designs using pattern members, such as pattern blocks.
Many designs appear at normal viewing distances to be continuous renditions of color or shades of color. In fact, at every point, when the design is examined closely, it is formed by discreet elements of color, typically black or white or some combination of spectral components in the case of color photographs.
The half-tone process used for reproducing photographs in newspapers makes use of a fine black-white checkerboard to represent mid-range gray. Different sizes of white spots on a black background or black spots on a white background are used for other shades of gray.
Representations of continuous designs may be made in other ways as well. Thus, small patterns or symbols originally designed for other purposes can be used to produce a photographic effect, if the patterns or symbols are relatively small in comparison with the overall size of the picture and if they permit selection of the desired brightness level in the space occupied by the pattern or symbol.
Accordingly, pictures can be produced by ordinary typewriter characters so that even when the individual type characters are quite unrelated to an overall scene they can be combined to produce a meaningful macroscopic pictorial representation. This is because the eye of the viewer does not see the microstructure from a distance but instead perceives intermediate shades of coloration according to the ratio of coloration presented by the microstructural elements.
A detailed explanation of the use of structural elements to represent pictorial scenes is presented in "Computer Produced Grey Scales" by Ken Knowlton and Leon Harmon in Computer Graphics and Image Processing, Volume 1, No. 1, April 1972, pages 1 through 20.
While a wide variety of symbolic elements are available for use in representing designs, certain elements create special problems. Thus a die has only a limited number of representations. In particular a die has six sides with from one to six spots of one color on a background of a different color. Thus the use of a die as a pattern member can pose difficulties since the number of different picture elements is strictly limited. A similar limitation is presented by the domino. The sets available are called double-sixes, double-nines or double-twelves. The double-six includes all combinations from blank-blank to six-six. This is because each individual domino is made up of two areas, side by side, each of which may be blank or contain a number of spots. In the case of a six-six, each area contains six spots. Similarly the double-nine set contains all combinations up to nine-nine and the double-twelve set contains all combinations up to twelve-twelve. The dominoes pose special problems as picture elements since each includes two areas which are side by side. It is not enough to satisfy the constraints of one of the areas. If each domino is to be used as an integral member two pattern areas are used for each member placement.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to facilitate the representation of designs using patterned blocks. A related object is to facilitate the representation of designs using pattern members in the form of blocks which include marks of one color on a background of another color.
It is another object of the invention to achieve picture quality representation of designs using spotted pattern blocks. A related object is to use spotted pattern blocks in the form of dice and dominoes.
It is a further object of the invention to represent designs using pattern blocks containing multiple patterns, such as dominoes. A related object is to represent designs using game pieces which can be used in conventional gaming fashion once they have served their design purpose.
Still another object of the invention is to achieve the representation of designs using complete sets of pattern blocks. A related object is to represent designs using complete sets of dominoes, such as a specified plurality of a double-six, double-nine or a double-twelve set.